1. Field
Embodiments of the present invention may relate to a mobile terminal and a method of controlling the same, enabling the application of a backlight dimming algorithms according to an application.
2. Related Art
An active matrix type liquid crystal display displays an image by using a thin film transistor (hereinafter, referred to as a “TFT”) as a switching device. The liquid crystal display is advantageous over a cathode ray tube (CRT) in terms of miniaturization, thus rapidly replacing the CRT in the applications fields of portable information devices, office machines, and computers as well as televisions.
The liquid crystal display is not a self-emissive device and thus requires a backlight unit for light emission to a liquid crystal display panel. The liquid crystal display is being utilized as a display device for a portable information device. To extend the useful life of a battery in the portable information device, the liquid crystal display needs to achieve a reduction in power consumption. Power consumed by light sources of a backlight unit and an inverter circuit for driving the light sources is almost half of the overall power consumed by the liquid crystal display. Therefore, it is effective to reduce power consumption in the backlight unit in order to reduce the power consumption of the liquid crystal device.
As for a method of reducing power consumption in the backlight unit, a backlight dimming method is in the widest use. The backlight dimming method may be divided into a local backlight dimming method and a global backlight dimming method. In the local backlight dimming method, a display area is divided into a plurality of blocks, and each of the blocks is individually controlled in terms of the luminance of the backlight, while in the global backlight dimming method, the luminance of the backlight is collectively lowered for the entire display area. The local backlight dimming method allows the luminance of a display area to be locally controlled within a single frame period, thus being desirably contributive to improving static contrast and reducing power consumption; however, it has limitations due to its high complexity of the algorithm and hardware and its poor applicability only for a direct type light emitting diode (LED) backlight unit which allows for easy luminance control upon each block. Meanwhile, the global backlight dimming method has low complexity in the algorithm and hardware and is easily applicable to any type of backlight unit.